Coca Cola Championship - Cardiff City v Swansea City
Venue: Cardiff City Stadium Date: Saturday, 3 April Starts: 1720 BST
Coverage: Full commentary on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra & online, live text commentary online and score updates BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sport website. Live on Sky Sports 1

Joe Allen celebrates after scoring at Ninian Park last season

Midfielder Joe Allen is hoping he can fire Swansea City to south Wales derby glory at the second attempt.

The Wales international, 20, thought he had scored the winning goal at Ninian Park last season but Cardiff secured a 2-2 with a late controversial penalty.

It was Allen's only goal for the club but he knows scoring again could be vital against their play-off rivals.

"I wouldn't mind emulating that again but the most important thing is to be on the winning side," he said.

"We came as close as we could last year.

"Obviously we had the disappointment of the late goal and we aim to go one step better this time."

The sell-out clash at Cardiff's new Cardiff City Stadium home is being dubbed the biggest south Wales derby ever with both sides in realistic contention for the Championship play-offs, with a place in the Premier League at stake.

Both sides are well-placed in the play-off zone, but are experiencing differences in fortunes.

Swansea are fifth on 62 points and five points ahead of the chasing pack with six games to go, but have won just one of their last seven games.

Cardiff are one place and three points better off than the Swans and are unbeaten in five, winning four of those, including Tuesday's 2-1 win over fellow play-off hopefuls Leicester City.

Swans boss Paulo Sousa watches Cardiff beat Leicester on Tuesday

But since the return of the south Wales derby last season after a nine-year absence, Swansea have won two out of the four meetings, with the others ending in 2-2 draws.

The Swans have also had a free week in the build-up to the game which manager Paulo Sousa says will give them the chance to be "fresh".

And it will give the likes of captain Garry Monk, Fede Bessone, Andrea Orlandi and Allen extra time to fully recover from their respective injuries.

Allen featured in the last 20 minutes of Swansea's 0-0 draw at home to Ipswich after five weeks out with a knee injury and is raring to go for Saturday.

"The derbies are special games," he added. "They stand out from the other fixtures because of the rivalry and the passionate fans, and it's always nice to be involved in them.

"The atmosphere is always electric and it's nice to be back fit just in time.

"I don't think there's been as big a game for the two clubs for a while."

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